Woman in Tech of the Week (9/27/17)

Law enforcement agencies across the globe concur that human trafficking — the capture, transfer, receipt or harboring of humans for various exploitative purposes — is widespread. Available statistics are wildly inconsistent, however; the International Labor Organization has estimated the global number of victims to be 20.9 million, while the Minderoo Foundation Pty Ltd’s Global Slavery Index puts the number at 45.8 million. Can big data analytics, particularly for dark web and blockchain activity, bring greater clarity to the problem and help police catch perpetrators?

“There’s no reliable, repeatable way to count trafficking, so right now it’s mostly anecdotal,” said Sherrie Caltagirone, founder and executive director of the Global Emancipation Network. The non-governmental organization (or NGO) proactively combats human trafficking in 22 countries and 77 cities around the world. Government agencies, NGOs, law enforcement and academia typically do not work together to reach accurate numbers on trafficking, according to Caltagirone.

“Everyone silos their individual parts of the data,” she said.

Global Emancipation Network benefits from the Splunk4Good project — Splunk Inc.’s pledge to donate $100 million over a 10-year period in software, support and education to organizations working for positive social impact. The hope is that Splunk’s big data technology — typically used by enterprises to increase profits — will help Global Emancipation Network measure and fight trafficking crimes.